"Roar!"
Answering Sanji's request, a burst of flames spewed from Gyarados's mouth, directly burning towards Krieg. At the same time, a powerful electric current exploded from its body, flipping over the pirates that had fallen into the sea like electrocuted fish.
"Hey! This guy is my opponent! I still need him to pay off my debt! What about my meal money?!"
Seeing Gyarados attack Krieg, Luffy instead felt a sense of dissatisfaction.
However, Gyarados didn't care about the noisy Straw Hat kid. It only had its eyes on the pirates who had disrupted Baratie. For enemies on the sea, it had ample experience, and destroying the enemy's foothold was always the correct approach.
Krieg's weapons and equipment were of no use against Gyarados. The armor and specially made cloak could withstand bullets and fists, but were futile against fire and lightning. The gauntlets and spear couldn't reach Gyarados, and bullets were dodged by it diving underwater.
Not to mention, Luffy was also beside him, attacking. Just as Krieg was about to use his M.H.5 to defeat these people, the toxic gas he released was ignited by Gyarados's flame, rendering it ineffective.
Apart from Gin, Klick Pirates were annihilated. His previous act of mercy ultimately saved himself.
"The legend of the sea monster... is it really true?"
Krieg is cruel and ruthless, but Gin has a mysterious following for him. Seeing the defeated and dead Krieg, Gin sat paralyzed like a lost soul.
At this moment, he recalled a legend from the East Sea: don't dine and dash at Baratie, or the sea monster will teach you how to behave.
"It's not a sea monster, but a very beautiful lady. Would you consider staying and doing odd jobs? You're different from those pirates."
"No, if it's convenient... please give me a little boat. Maybe we'll meet again someday."
Gin left Baratie in a daze and embraced the legendary life where everything can be Gin. Sanji ultimately joined Luffy's crew, but Gyarados did not leave with him and stayed at Baratie to continue protecting the nearby Magikarp.
However, just the second day aboard the ship, Sanji started to feel regret.
"Your Navigator is this Heracross??? This green-haired fellow is your Compass? How did you guys even make it here?!"
He had seen a two-bladed Navigator, but never a Heracross directing a ship. To him, this was too fantastical.
But Sanji didn't know that there was another problem the next day because Heracross was missing.
...
"Heracross! Heracross! Where did you go?!"
After searching every corner of the ship, Luffy couldn't find Heracross's shadow, and he lay on the deck utterly dejected, unable to even be roused by Sanji's food.
"Hey, Luffy, don't be so down. It's just a Heracross, going out is normal, isn't it?"
"No way, Heracross has never missed breakfast before. It must be in trouble, Usopp! Zoro! Have you seen Heracross?!"
In response to Luffy's calls, Zoro awoke. The crew had different resting schedules, with Luffy sleeping about five hours randomly.
Zoro, on the other hand, would rest from 4 AM to 7 AM for three hours and nap during the day. The previous night, before sleeping, Zoro coincidentally saw Heracross.
"Last night, a Heracross that looked like it passed by here and told me a lot, apparently asking me to give this to you, but exactly what it said, I don't know."
On a piece of letter paper, there was a sketchy drawing, along with some Heracross's claw prints. Looking at the drawing, Sanji and Usopp were bewildered.
"These should be random claw prints, right?"
"Yeah, a Heracross drawing? That's too far-fetched, it's like saying dancing makes you stronger."
"Cut it out, Usopp, there's no way someone gets stronger just by dancing."
"Ah, I was just saying whatever, but I've heard..."
"Heracross said it went to help a friend fight."
While Sanji and Usopp were talking, Luffy suddenly yelled as if enlightened.
"Darn, it didn't call me. Is it looking down on me!"
"No, how did you understand it!"
"Yeah, what are these drawings?!"
Besides Luffy, the other three couldn't understand the extremely abstract drawings, so Luffy began to give a professional explanation.
"Uh, are you guys idiots? Heracross drew it quite clearly, there's an evil Mouse bullying its friend. It's going to help out now, telling us to wait here for a few days.
I can't, I need to help it."
"But it's already left ahead, how will you find it?"
At this moment, a few Heracross were flying over the sea next to them. Luffy quickly chased and caught one, trying to communicate with body language.
He also used the notes Heracross left behind to express his purpose. Fortunately, with his long-standing interaction with Heracross, Luffy had gained an understanding of Heracross's language, eventually achieving successful communication.
The Golden Merry also changed course accordingly, following them in a new direction.
They had no other choice. Without the Heracross, the four men on the ship astonishingly realized that none of them could determine the direction of their sailing.
...
Heracross's departure was not accidental but a matter concerning the Heracross tribe. Initially, Heracross spread across different islands, forming independent groups.
Some Heracross remained solitary, like Heracross, but others had already multiplied, birthing second and third generations of Heracross.
Individual differences became significant. The original Heracross created by Arceus were undoubtedly the strongest, capable of claiming a foothold on the Grand Line, and they were the ones responsible for returning to Ghost Island to pay homage.
Ordinary Heracrosses just gathered information near their habitats and reported regularly.
But even the original Heracrosses varied due to their differing beetle traits, with varying strengths among themselves, let alone their descendants.
Compared to the initial Heracrosses, their offspring seemed weaker, often encountering difficulties.
When they faced problems they couldn't solve, they would seek help from nearby Heracrosses.
For Bug-type Pokemon, numbers were their advantage. Heracross met a Heracross seeking help.
Nearby Heracrosses were moving closer toward Cocoyasi Village, and it all originated from the gold mine Cocoyasi discovered.